Post-"Cutdown Day" Overreaction

Well, Saturday was one crazy day. I spent it driving up to Lake Placid, NY with my wife in the passenger seat "manning" my blackberry and giving me Twitter updates every few minutes as the news of the Giants' cuts slowly leaked out. Most were expected, but a few caught me by surprise. As we approached the 6 O'Clock deadline, the Giants needed one more cut to get down to 53. The rumors on "Twitter" were that the Giants were trying to trade DE Dave Tollefson, so if a deal couldn't be reached, he seemed to be the most likely odd-man out. As the tension mounted, I--of course--lost cell phone service. It wasn't until around 6:30 when I got into my hotel room that I finally found out what was--in my opinion--the biggest surprise of the day. The Giants had kept Tollefson, and dropped second year RB Andre Brown. The decision didn't surprise me because Brown had "wowed" me in the preseason, but rather because the Giants seemed very high on him, and as a general rule, they don't like to give up on draft-picks too quickly. But in the end, the banged-up and unproven Brown was simply not worth a roster spot.

To me, the other big surprise was WR Duke Calhoun beating out WR Derek Hagen. Hagen was a solid back-up and (I thought anyway) a very good special teams player. I had also noticed he was one of the Giants captains for their preseason game against the Ravens, so I didn't think he was really on the bubble. But apparently the Giants felt Hagen had slowed down as a gunner on punt coverage, and they felt Calhoun was an upgrade in this regard.

The one bold pick I got right was that the Giants would cut Jay Alford. Despite my intuition, Alford was probably the player I was most disappointed to see go. His hit on Tom Brady in Superbowl XLII will live in Giants' lore forever, but he was coming off major knee surgery, and the Rocky Bernard simply outplayed him in the preseason. Alford wasn't out of work long though, as he was reunited with former defensive line coach Mike Waufle in Oakland. I wish him luck.

Finally, I was legitimately happy for Victor Cruz. There were a lot of doubters who felt his lack of a role on special teams would cost him a roster spot but he just played too damn well to not keep. He could probably be the #1 WR on the Rams right now. Besides, he replaces Sinorice Moss on the roster, and what did Moss ever do on special teams? If anything, Cruz is more versatile because he's bigger than Moss. They had to keep him, and I'm glad they did. It's amazing when you think about the fact that Calhoun and Cruz were both undrafted rookies, trying to make a team that was supposedly already stacked at WR. That's a hell of a job by those two, and I tip my hat to them. That being said, the minute one of them drops a pass or misses a tackle on punt coverage, I'll be the first to curse them out demand they be cut. I overreact, it's just what I do.